We’ve
talked about green energy here at TI&IT before (Fossilizing Fossil Fuels ForFundamental Molecules)
but coming up we’re going to get a bit more literal with it. In the 1990’s,
researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) in Tennessee, United
States put a patent on electricity producing Spinach. Well Spinach proteins to
be exact, but I mean, if a salad can provide the energy for our bodies to
function, why can’t it power our cars too?
And
that is exactly the strange line of thinking that brought us gel-like
artificial chlorophyll in North Carolina and the hydrogen fuel producing solar
powered trees at MIT. But how does this craziness actually work?
Well
unlike electrolysis, which uses metal connectors and electrical currents to
separate Hydrogen from Oxygen molecules in water, this method uses solar power through
a form photosynthesis. So from start to finish, it’s a clean, green, energy
producing machine. And do you want to know the best part about this? It’s
cheap.
That’s
right. For so long Hydrogen fuel cells seemed to elude us due to the fact that
the production methods byproducts were harmful to us, not energy efficient, and
above all, were not cost effective for the small quantities of power it
yielded. In fact, depending on which process scientists used for past
extraction methods, the energy loss percentage could sometimes be as high as ¾.
That’s a lot of waste when you think about it.
Not
everyone can keep paying seven dollars a gallon here in the U.S. for gasoline.
In truth, even the ones who can
afford it don’t want to. We burn through billions of gallons of the stuff
worldwide every year, polluting the environment and avoiding clean energy. For
our next multi-part series at TI&IT, let’s take an in depth look at just
how the brilliant minds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are
looking to change this. But first, let me tell you a little bit about a War,
the telegraph, and four men named Grove, Bacon, Olds and Ford.
Telegraph For Mr.
Grove
Believe
it or not, fuel cell technology goes back a lot further than you think. In
fact, it technically predates the
Civil War. I know what you’re thinking, “You’re full of crap guy. The
combustion engine came way before the
fuel cell.” The truth is, you’re wrong. But at the same time, you’re also
right.
In
1839 a man named Sir William Grove went to work on what would later earn him
the sobriquet “The father of the fuel cell.” It was a power cell of sorts that
consisted of a zinc anode in dilute sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode in
concentrated nitric acid, the two separated by a porous ceramic pot.
Grove
discovered that by arranging two platinum electrodes with one end of each
immersed in a container of sulfuric acid and the other ends separately sealed
in containers of oxygen and hydrogen, a constant current would flow between the
electrodes. The sealed containers held water as well as the gases, and he noted
that the water level rose in both tubes as the current flowed.
This
invention changed the technological landscape. The Grove Cell was quickly
implemented into American telegraph systems. The cells were grouped together
and soldered on a wooden table to increase their output. This configuration was
known as a battery. (And as we all know a “cell” is the smallest component of a
“battery.”) This became a staple in the Telegraph system until the time of the
Civil War.
But
a problem soon set in. The high volume of traffic across the lines would
sometimes cause the Grove Cells to overheat and convert the chemicals to gas
causing them to discharge Nitrogen Dioxide. This is bad. Nitrogen Dioxide is
toxic if inhaled. The good news? NO2 has a distinct and acrid odor to it, so
detection is relatively easy. However it can anesthetize the nose, meaning
after you smell enough of it, you don’t notice it anymore. In a large quantity
it will lead to Pulmonary Edema (fluid in the lungs). If overexposed you
basically drown from the inside out.
Luckily
it was replaced by the Daniell Cell, but that’s another story for another
day…now what was I babbling about? Oh yes, fuel cells.
While
the concept of hydrogen power was nothing new, (British scientists William
Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle had already described the process of using
electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen in 1800), Grove took it
a step further by describing a new kind of battery. In 1843, he developed what
he called, a gas voltaic battery. The funniest part of it all however was that,
while it operated by producing electrical current through the melding of
hydrogen and oxygen, the technology and understanding of chemical properties
was limited by the times.
In
short, while it was neat to look at in awe, nobody really knew how it worked.
German
scientist Ludwig Mond and his assistant Charles Langer were the next to capture
the public’s attention with what was truly the first fuel cell. In fact,
they’re the ones who coined it the name. Even though Grove is considered the
founder of the technology, these two took everything to a whole new level.
They
introduced porous electrodes which increased the productivity, and in 1889,
they built the first working fuel cell that operated using air and coal gas to
cause the reaction. It was truly phenomenal, but they still weren’t entirely
sure about what was happening. It seemed some materials were more conductive
than others and they just couldn’t figure out why.
It
wouldn’t be until almost the turn of the century that Friedrich Wilhelm
Ostwald, a founder of the field of physical chemistry, provided much of the
theoretical understanding of how fuel cells operate. In 1893, he experimentally
determined the interconnected roles of the various components of the fuel cell:
electrodes, electrolyte, oxidizing and reducing agents, anions (a negative ion),
and cations (a positive ion).
But
there was still work to be done in order to perfect fuel cells. And a man named
Francis Bacon was determined to make that happen.
Submarines and
Spaceships
Pictured
above is Francis Bacon standing proudly in front of the first somewhat
efficient Fuel Cell ever developed. (And Lordy Almighty it’s a biggun!) See,
Bacon’s design differed from Grove’s and Ludwig Mond’s significantly, as well
it should. While the other two were researchers and scientists not used to
working with high temperatures and huge pressures in heavy machinery, Bacon was
an engineer. (Remember to respect your Engineers in the scientific community
ladies and gentlemen! You may dream it up, but these guys are the ones who
build it!)
He
proposed that with the right changes made to the original design that the Fuel
Cell could be a viable source of power for Submarines. Building off the work of
Emil Bauer just a few years before him and his research into Fuel Cells and
high temperatures, Francis Bacon hit the lab and began wrenching away on his
invention. His discoveries opened the door for all modern research into Fuel
Cell technology.
He
first concluded that the diluted acidic solutions used to power the Fuel Cells
currently available just wouldn’t cut it. The chemicals were far too corrosive
to be truly efficient. He replaced the acid mixture with potassium hydroxide
which wouldn’t damage the electrodes as much. The next change he made was even
more significant. The platinum cathodes that Grove had used as his primary
method of conducting electrolysis were switched out for much cheaper activated nickel
electrodes.
In
1940 he moved to London to continue his research with a little more funding and
equipment. It was here he discovered his “Eureka!” moment. Bacon developed the
first double-cell with one unit for generating the hydrogen and oxygen gases
and the other for the fuel cell. This could be reversed so that it acted as
both an electrolyzer and a fuel cell. But problems were encountered due to the high
operating temperatures and pressures and the corrosive nature of the chemicals.
The
world was impressed to say the least and fuel cells moved from the realm of
obscurity and scientific curiosity into the realm of, “hey, these may actually
be useful!” The government gave him access to porous nickel, an invention so
strange that it was actually protected under the Official Secrets Act. He used
it to develop electrodes with large pores on the gas side and finer ones on the
electrolyte side. This resulted in a much more stable product. The government
began throwing funding at Bacon by the fistfuls.
Instead
of embezzling this money (like we would in modern times *eye roll*) Francis
actually used it for the betterment of mankind and in 1959 he built the
Hydroxide Fuel Cell pictured above. But instead of going into the ocean the
world had another idea for this wondrous new technology. And no, it wasn’t
bombs.
Pictured
above is a cutaway of the Gemini V fuel cell. As the Soviet Union was sending
Sputnik up into Space, the United States knew it couldn’t just rest on its
laurels, we had to compete. Bacon’s fuel cell model became the standard after
outperforming standard battery power of the time by over 200 times the
longevity of safe operation.
While
the design may have changed over the years, variations of Bacon’s original fuel
cell are used today to put spacecraft into orbit. During the Apollo missions,
fuel cells were also used to produce clean drinking water. While they were
capable of splitting hydrogen molecules from oxygen molecules they could also
put them back together. (Hydrogen plus oxygen equals yummy nutritious water!)
It’s
too bad that American’s favor cheap over innovation, a trend met with recent
unrest over jobs leaving North America to head to China. But as Henry Ford
discovered, an assembly line trumps manual progress every time.
Moving Forward
With
the advent of the internal combustion engine, fuel cells seemed to fall to the
wayside. While they were developed alongside fuel cells technically, the mass
beginnings of petroleum excavation in the mid-1850s began to degrade public
interest. After all, fuel cells weren’t widely understood, capable of producing
toxic gases, and didn’t provide the same amount of power and efficiency that
ICEs did.
China
had already proven to the world the efficient nature of division of labor. To
explain it, let’s modernize it a little bit. Pretend you work at McDonald’s as
a cashier. Your duties involve interacting with the customer, taking the order,
exchanging currency, and handing the customer a receipt. The order then goes to
the back where a fry cook makes the burgers and French Fries. Another worker
then comes up, bags the food, and hands it to the customer. At the end of the
day another worker cleans the dishes while a manager counts all the income that
was made that day in the back office before dropping the deposit off to the
bank.
The
splitting and designation of these tasks is called division of labor.
And
of course the brilliant Chinese had developed this process.
Industrialization
also brought about the decline of the fuel cell technology. It gave us machines
that could cut and smooth parts using jigs and fixtures to guide them. The only
human interactions were pressing a button, moving a platform, and placing the
material to be cut. These were called interchangeable parts. Fast, accurate,
and efficient, this lead to the assembly line.
While
a man named Ransom Olds (you may remember him from his namesake, the “Oldsmobile”)
developed the assembly line process, Henry Ford is often incorrectly credited.
Ford did NOT invent the assembly line; he just perfected the process by adding
conveyor belts into the mix. This resulted in the ability to build an entire
Model T automobile in approximately an hour and a half. Now that’s production.
Luckily
though fuel cells didn’t die out entirely and were just pushed aside
temporarily.
Until
now.
The “Anodes” of
History
We
too often think of fuel cells as being “new technology”, but as you can see,
their rich history takes us back now almost two centuries! While we may have improved
on the materials and costs of building fuel cells, and we understand now how
they do what they do, the core of them has never changed. They still require
electrodes, they still require chemical production, and they still aren’t as
energy efficient as the internal combustion. However…
Recent
advances in Green Technology (and I literally mean “Green”) have put fuel cells
back into the mainstream again. Now that scientists and OPEC executives are
beginning to grow squirrely over potentially dwindling petroleum wells, this
could be the technology that saves the human race from ourselves.
Tomorrow
we’re going to talk about how modern fuel cells operate and what they’re being
used for currently. We’ll also discuss the various methods that go into creating
them and who is pioneering the field now. Plus, a new way of gathering the fuel
for the cells that should “leaf” you totally breathless. Hope you enjoyed the
first part of this guys and gals! And thank you so much for reading To Infinity And…In Theory, it truly means the
world to me.
-
Ryan
Sanders
(Dilbert,
from the gut-bustingly hilarious Scott Adams)
Thank you
for reading this article on the history of the fuel cell. If you would like to
know more about any of the above material you can by following any of the links
below. Feel free to share this on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or any other
Social Media site you may use. Happy learning everyone!
*Some time frames may be subject to
discrepancy. Dates used in the article above are the assumed time frames within
1-3 years as information on specificities vary depending on the source. While I
try to remain as accurate as possible, I am only as accurate as my sources.
Thank you for your understanding.*
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